1067 ff. the soliloquy would acquire humor, if confidentially directed at
the audience. In _As._ 127 ff., as Argyrippus berates the _lena_ within,
it must be delivered with an abundance of pantomime.


2. Lengthy monodies, monologues and episodical specialties.

Frequently the soliloquy takes the form of a long solo passage directed at
the audience, while the action halts for a whole scene to allow the actor
to regale his public with the poet's views on the sins of society,
economic topics of the day, or topics of the by-gone days in Athens, and
the like. The resemblance to the interpolated song and dance of musical
comedy is most striking. The comparison is the more apt, as about
two-thirds of the illustrative scenes referred to in the next paragraph
are in _canticum_. It is a pity that the comic chorus had disappeared, or
the picture were complete. That it is often on the actor's initial
appearance that he sings his song or speaks his piece, strengthens the
resemblance. But this is a natural growth under the influence of two
publics, the Greek and the Roman, notably fond of declamation and oratory.
LeGrand believes this a characteristic directly derived from a narrative
form of Middle Comedy embodied in certain extant fragments.[139]

The slave class is the topic of many of these monodies: either the virtues
of the loyal slave are extolled[140], or the knavery of the cunning
slave[141]. The parasite is "featured" too, when Ergasilus bewails the
decline of his profession[142], or Peniculus and Gelasimus indulge in
haunting threnody on their perpetual lack of food[143]. Bankers, lawyers
and panders come in for their share of satire[144]. Our favorite topic
today, the frills and furbelows of woman's dress and its reform, held the
boards of ancient Athens and Rome[145]. In _Mil._ 637 ff, Periplecomenus